Stress Relief
by MissMollyBloom
Summary: Things weren't right with Molly, and Sherlock didn't like it one bit.


A/N: Another Ficlet Friday Prompt Fill. I try to answer a few every Friday, so please feel free to msg me here or on Tumblr if you have a prompt (my user is MissMollyBloom on Tumblr, too).

Penaltywaltz submitted this prompt: Molly pulls away from everyone, not answering her phone, going right home after work, not wanting to socialize with anyone. She says everything is fine, but it's very unlike her and Sherlock is worried. He investigates and finds out Molly got a video game console from one of her coworkers and a few video games to go with it and she's obsessed with beating one of them. Bonus if she ends up getting Sherlock to play along with her. Extra bonus if it's something like Halo or Mortal Kombat

I think I got all the bonus points for this one!

* * *

Things weren't right with Molly, and Sherlock didn't like it one bit.

Where she often used to answer her phone within three rings, now it was almost always going to voicemail. Instead of going out for drinks with Meena on Friday nights, she'd beg off and go straight home. Instead of hanging around after her shift to ask him how his latest case was going, she was straight out the door without so much as a goodbye.

He'd shared his observations with John one afternoon, only to receive the look John reserved for when he thought Sherlock was about to do something stupid.

"Don't even think about it, mate," John warned.

"Think about what?" He asked, feigning confusion.

"Just leave Molly be," John said with all the stern sincerity of a brother warning his best friend to stay away from his younger sister.

Sherlock shook his head, "Not possible John," he said, before storming off, waving down a cab and giving the driver Molly's address.

If he was worried about her beforehand, he was positively panicked when he heard screams through her front door. Without time to pick the lock, Sherlock kicked down the door with as much force as he could manage. Hinges and door separated beneath his boot.

The screams continued as he rushed inside, but they weren't from Molly. She was sitting on the lounge, headphones over her ears. She hadn't even heard him enter over the bloodcurdling screams coming from the television.

Sherlock saw the reason for the noise – a pixilated four-armed man was being cut to shreds by a buxom woman with swords for arms. And from the look of triumph on her face, Sherlock guessed that Molly in control of the woman.

"What the hell is this?" Sherlock said.

Molly dropped the controller in shock. On the television, the sword-armed woman stopped still and the four-armed giant lifted her up and threw her off-screen.

"What are you doing in my flat?" Molly demanded, pulling off her headphones and discarding them on the ground.

"I was worried. I thought something was wrong. You haven't been yourself lately," he explained.

"And since when is it your business how I spend my spare time?" Molly stood, challenging him by invading his space. For a small, slight woman, she had the power to intimidate him whenever she thought he was in the wrong. The morning of his failed drug test at Bart's was proof of that.

"It's not." As much as he hated to admit it, he knew it was true.

They stood in silence for a moment.

"So, what is this?" Sherlock asked, gesturing to the television which now showed small pictures of other gruesome looking warriors – some kind of selection screen, he assumed.

"It's, um, Mortal Kombat," Molly smirked.

"Mortal Kombat?" Sherlock said the words as if they were from a foreign language.

"I used to play it as a kid. It's good stress relief, beating up on video game characters."

Sherlock raised an eyebrow "Stress relief?"

"It's also good for dexterity. I used to play all sorts of games during Uni – Halo, Gears of War, Call of Duty – all the med students would play."

"Just when I think I have you all figured out, Molly Hooper, you do something completely unexpected."

He looked into her eyes, willing her to hear the words he wasn't quite ready to say. They stayed that way for a moment, the kind of moment when time stretches beyond all possible bounds.

Molly began to speak before a small voice called out from her headphones.

"Regicide? Regicide? Are you ready to play again?" the voice asked.

"Regicide?" Sherlock questioned.

"Well, if your brother's the queen, he'd better watch out," she joked. Sherlock laughed. He couldn't remember the last time he laughed.

"Are you there Regicide?" the disembodied voice continued.

Molly bent down to pick up her headphones. "Yes, I'm – um…" she trailed off.

"It's ok, I'll go," Sherlock said. "I'll pay to have the door fixed."

He was halfway down the hallway when she called his name.

"Sherlock? Do you want to play?" She asked.

* * *

Note: I was going to look up YouTube footage of fatalities from Mortal Kombat X, but my four year old was sitting behind me as I was writing this, so I thought it best if I left my description to my imagination, save giving him nightmares tonight!


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